July's version of Christmas comes to track and field fans on Friday when the 2017 Herculis meet in Monaco takes place. Usain Bolt will be racing as will many others:
Olympic champ Matthew Centrowitz takes on Asbel Kiprop, Ronald Kwemoi, Timothy Cheruiyot and more in the men's 1500.
Ajee Wilson goes for the American record against Caster Semenya in the women's 800.
NCAA sensation Emmanuel Korir is in the men's 800.
Hellen Obiri vs. Laura Muir vs. Molly Huddle in the women's 3000.
Evan Jager vs. Conseslus Kipruto in the men's steeple.
Two of the three furthest throwers in history, Thomas Röhler and Johannes Vetter, will battle in the men's javelin.
Wayde van Niekerk, fresh off a Diamond League record 43.62 in Lausanne, takes on Isaac Makwala, who just became the first man to break 20 and 44 in the same day, in the men's 400.
We preview the best single day regular season meet of the year for you here:
We spoke to Centro about his chances in Monaco and he doesn't think he should be ignored even though he finished 7th in the Lausanne 1500 in 3:34.83 and 7th in an 800 in Lucerne in 1:49.12.
"I was a little bit disappointed with Lausanne," said Centrowitz to LetsRun.com when we spoke with him on the phone in St. Moritz on July 12th, "but I felt lots better about it after speaking with [coach] Alberto [Salazar]. He was pretty thrilled about it. He thought I was going to run 3:36, so he was pretty happy with it. So that made me feel a lot better."
As for Lucerne?
"I looked at my splits for that Lausanne race and ... I closed in 55, which I was pretty happy with," Centrowitz said. "I just couldn't get out, I wasn't getting going. So I looked at this 800 like it was close to St. Moritz (Centrowitz's European training base), it was easy to get into and just get my legs spinning a little bit. So I got what I needed out of it. I'm pretty happy that I got into that 800 before Monaco because I think that will help me wake up a little bit, wake my legs up a little bit and get after this next race a little bit more aggressively, which I plan to do."
Centrowitz said that he doesn't have a time goal in Monaco, saying simply that he wants to be "more competitive than I was in Lausanne." His PR is 3:30.40 from this race two years ago, and while that will be tough to beat, it's not hard to imagine him slicing a few seconds off his 3:34 from Lausanne.
"Every workout, I feel like I'm getting my legs back underneath me," Centrowitz said. "I think I'm definitely rounding into really good form and I'm excited about the progression I've had since USAs."